If Love Can See Us Through
by DanaKai
Summary: It has been months since Hippo had last seen Yuri. The mermaid princesses decide to go on a journey and bring Yuri back for the sake of Hippo. Will they be able to get her or fail trying? HippoxYuri.
1. Whispering Tears

_Whispering Hearts_

Time Setting: Four days before Christmas.

Hippo sighed. He was laying down on his bed staring at the ceiling. He was in his human form, it was starting to get harder and harder for him to stay in he penguin form, because he had been living on land for so long. He had done everything he possibly could to avoid getting into this state ,but of course failed. There was nothing on T.V., the house was spotless, everything that needed to be done was indeed done, the girls were at school, and Nikora, Taki and Seira went to visit the North Pacific Kingdom for the holidays. He was in charge of watching the girls until Nikora got back. You know from the house burning down or the girls inviting their boyfriends over unattended and so on.

Now he was really wondering if it was possible to die from boredom. Most of all, he was afraid what would happen if he thought about her…

Hippo quickly got up, shaking his head to get the thoughts out. He then decided to start decorating the bath house to a Christmas theme. Since the bathhouse was closed during Nikora's absence decorating was pointless, but it made him feel better.

The seas had been calm since what had happened with Michel and since Lucia recently became the new Aqua Regina no one has even bothered trying to take over the seas. That was main reason Nikora went back, to discuss about Lucia ( but also to relax from the commotion from the house). With all the princesses, they were unbeatable but all that there has been are typhoons, hurricanes, one tsunami and a few oil spills. All those events are no problem for them. Everyone decided to live somewhere in town and enjoy life as much as possible before going back to their own kingdoms. Now Seira was living with them.

When Hippo snapped back to reality, the whole place looked as if it were professionally decorated. When he looked at what was in his hands he saw a mistletoe. Now that thought about it he hadn't even kissed her yet. Oh how he remembered her long, silky, light green hair, her clear green cat-like eyes, her delicate figure and her adorable face. Everything about her was cute, graceful, and ladylike…

Oh No! He was thinking about her again! He shook his head violently and slumped to the ground. The mistletoe fell from his hands as he pulled his legs to his chest. He felt tears in his eyes. He had longed to see her and hold her close to his aching heart. His last words to her were to come and get her someday. So far he had no idea how he was going to do that. As the Divine Beast Protector of the Seal Gate, his powers were limited. He felt so hopeless.

"Someday…Someday… I will come for you… just wait for me, okay…Yuri…", Hippo whispered, as a tear fell to the ground.


	2. A Plan for Hope

Lucia sat down next to Hanon, who was eating some grapes while watching T.V. in the living room.

"So how is Hippo feeling?" Hanon asked, between chewing a mouthful of grapes.

"He said he doesn't feel good, so he's going to stay in bed for the rest of the day," Lucia replied, while grabbing a few grapes and popping them in her mouth. "It scared me when we saw him on the floor curled up in a ball , when we got back. Also, I could have sworn he looked like he had been crying…"

Hanon stopped eating. " Now that I think about it, since Christmas is coming soon, Hippo has no one specific to share it with. Maybe when he was decorating, he thought about Yuri and he got depressed."

Lucia pulled her eyes from the T.V. and looked at Hanon. "Wow, you might be right! Geez, I wish there was a way we could help Hippo and Yuri…"

There was silence between them.

Suddenly, Hanon shot up and quickly turned off the T.V. She then grabbed Lucia and looked hard at her.

"Lucia, there IS something we can do!" Hanon exclaimed, " Did we forget? You're the new Aqua Regina! You can nearly do anything!" All we have to do is find Yuri and you can turn her back into a human, then Hippo and Yuri can be together for good!"

Lucia stared back at Hanon, deep in thought. "We can make it a Christmas present for Hippo to show all of our appreciation for what he has done for us." She suggested, "He practically gave up on his love life for our sake. So we mustn't tell this to Hippo."

"Yeah but we need all seven princesses to have your full power awakened. Everyone is in town, except Seira, who is at your kingdom, where you older sister is and we can't let her find out about our plan. If she found out she would never let us go. Most importantly how are we going to leave without Hippo finding out or stopping us?" Hanon asked.

"Well we'll figure out something… we have to have her here before Christmas ends though…", Lucia stated.

Then Rina walked into the room. "Hey you guys! What are you all doing?"

Together Lucia and Hanon ran to Rina, nearly knocking her over. They then filled her in on their idea. Rina walked over to the couch, sat down and thought over of what she just heard. Lucia and Hanon watched her in anticipation.

"It's not a bad idea," Rina paused, "He did do a lot for us ,too. I think he deserves it. It's kind of unfair that we have love lives while he doesn't." Rina was silent for a moment and continued, " First, I think should call everyone here for an emergency meeting, while Hippo is still out of it. From there we can work it out."

Hanon and Lucia started to jump up and down excitedly. Thanked Rina for her understanding and ran off to retrieve their cell phones.

About an hour later , all the mermaid princesses were sitting around in the living room with the exception of Seira.

"So what do you guys think?", Lucia asked, after explaining the idea to everyone else.

The other girls looked at each other and started to nod their heads.

"I believe that is a wonderful idea!" exclaimed Noel. Coco nodded.

"I think so too," Caren agreeing with her sister. "But even if you were to bring her back, how do you know she won't try something?" "I believe she loves Hippo too much to try and cause more trouble and pain for him." Lucia said confidently. "Hmm... okay, I'll believe it when I see it. So how do you suppose we carry this out?" Caren continued still a bit unsure.

"This is the main reason we called you all here." Rina replied. The four main events that need to take place are as following; An excuse to be gone for as long as we need, to somehow get Seira from Lucia's kingdom without Nikora being suspicious, to find, retrieve and turn Yuri into her old self, and last of all to present her to Hippo. The deadline is the night of Christmas. We need to think of a plan and get it started as soon as possible. Starting tomorrow we only have four days."

Silence filled the room as everyone was in deep thought.

Then Noel spoke, " Ooo, I have an idea for events one and four. We can have a party on Christmas. Tomorrow we can tell Hippo we are getting supplies for our party and then we can tell him that Lucia, Hanon and Rina are sleeping over at me and Caren's house to talk about the party. Then on Christmas we can present Yuri to Hippo as a Christmas gift from all of us!"

" Not bad, not bad," Hanon said, "What about number two and three?"

Silence again.

Coco spoke this time. "I have an idea for number two! We can tell Nikora we are going to take Seira to visit her kingdom in the Indian Ocean. Everything would make sense since I was the closest friend to Sara who was the last Indian Ocean Princess. Sara's kingdom was practically my second home, I know almost everything about it. Just to make sure, after we get Yuri, I can quickly take Seira to her kingdom, so if Nikora ask any questions Seira would be able to answer them. We then can meet you guys on Christmas at the party."

"Good thinking ,Coco!" giggled Lucia and went to hug her. Coco blushed at the praise.

Now that leaves the hardest event, number three," continued Rina.

Once again silence filled the room. This time it lasted quite a bit longer than the silence of the other numbers.

Finally Caren was the one to break the silence. "You know what, since you bring up Sara we can most likely track down her pearl with a pearl tracker. Since Sara is always with Gackto now and team black rose are like his worshippers, Yuri would probably be somewhere around Sara. So all we really need is a pearl tracker. We then can turn her back and then take her back with us."

"These plans are pretty good… okay so we should buy supplies when we get back and start getting ready the day of the party or if we come back early we can do that it on Christmas Eve. Now we need to meet tomorrow at six a.m." stated Rina.

"Awww Man!" complained everyone else. "But us girls need our beauty sleep… oh well this is for Hippo," continued Hanon

While the girls discussed their plan in detail, Hippo woke up from the chattering of the girls. He decided since he was up he could at least get a glass of water, then go back to bed. When he got closer to the living room he could tell almost all of the mermaid princesses were there. _Their probably talking about boys or clothes, _he thought to himself. Then he heard Lucia say, "Now we just need to tell Hippo."

"What did you need to tell me?" Hippo asked.

Then it was silent and all the girls looked straight at him. "Oh hey Hippo! Perfect timing we needed to tell you that tomorrow we are going to go shopping for supplies for the Christmas party we're having. We also are going to sleep over at Noel's and Caren's house tomorrow to talk about it." replied Lucia.

"Oh okay… maybe I can come with you and help with…," then the girls had cut Hippo off by nearly screaming, NO!

Hippo jumped back by the sudden yell.

"No, we mean, uh, we heard you weren't feeling well so why don't you relax and get better. I bet you need a break from all the commotion from Lucia and especially Hanon." Noel said quickly. "Hey!" Hanon said from the comment. The girls sighed in relief without Hippo noticing.

"Okay. I could use a break," Hippo replied thankfully. He then went and got some water and when he was about to leave Rina told him they would probably be gone before he woke up. _That's even better_, he thought to himself. "Okay," he replied before he continued on to his room.

Then when they could hear him close the door to his bedroom all the girls sighed. "Okay we should go before he hears us say something, we're lucky he didn't suspect anything. That means mission one has been complete." Coco pointed out. Noel and Caren nodded. "Okay we will see you tomorrow at six near the shack." Lucia replied.

When the other girls went home, Hanon, Rina and Lucia decided to get ready for the next day.

"Just you wait Hippo we're going to get Yuri back for good," Lucia whispered with excitment, before continuing on her task.


	3. Music Memories

**Hello! Thank you for reading this story! If you couldn't tell, this is my very first story (Also this is the first ENGLISH fanfiction of Yuri and Hippo)(There were two French stories for them, if you understand French then I encourage you to read them). I apologize for taking so long for updating. Knowing that some people have been reading this, by the reviews, has nearly put me to tears. I would like to encourage people to write more fanfics for Hippo and Yuri (or their love story will never continue and they will forever stay apart. How sad... The forbiddeness of their love would win. haha jk... no but seriously)( when I look back at what I just wrote it sounds SOOOO cheesy.) (Anyways, you know what I mean.)(Yay for parentheses!)( Is that how you spell it ?) So please think about it.**

**I give great thanks to _Sarkura, Rain on your Back _and _Awesome Rapidash_, these people were my first reviewers. Yay! Bye Bye for now!**

* * *

It was 5:56 in the morning. Almost everyone in on the plan was in front of the shack waiting to begin.

Rina looked at her cell phone's clock impatiently. They needed to start soon but Lucia was still missing. Rina looked around at the other princesses who were there. Noel and Caren were concentrating on fixing their hair, mumbling something about sometimes wishing they had straight hair. Coco was nearly falling asleep standing where she was. Hanon looked ready to murder someone for making her wake up so early. Rina silently begged for Lucia to hurry before she was the one to be murdered.

Finally Lucia came running up to Rina nearly out of breath. "I snuck… into Hippo's room …and got this," Lucia said between gasps of air handing Rina a pearl tracker. "Okay I need everyone to come here, we are ready to start," called Rina. Alright we went over the plan and we need to make sure that when we get back that we have enough things to make it seem as if we really did do something for the party.

Is there anything else we are forgetting?" asked Rina. Everyone started to think. "Well, I think whatever comes up we can deal with it but we need to leave, we only have three more days till Christmas," Hanon said looking sleepily at her watch. "Alright girls let's go! Lucia called out. They started to walk into the water and turned into their mermaid forms. Lucia turned around to make sure everyone was there and led the way to her kingdom of the North Pacific.

**Back at the Bath House:**

Hippo woke up to complete silence. He quickly sat up realizing it was far too quiet. Then he remembered what the girls said something about get ready to have a Christmas party. 'It does seem to be a bit lonely… oh well, free time for me.' After eating and watching T.V. for a while the thought suddenly came to him that he hadn't even bought presents for everyone yet. He quickly got ready and headed for the mall.

About two hours later from shopping and running away from a crowd of girls in the mall, Hippo had bought everyone a gift besides Lucia and Hanon. Hippo had earned and saved money from working at the bath house so luckily he had enough money to buy all the gifts. He decided to take a break and get some lunch at the food court. After he got his food, he sat down at a table and went over the gifts; For Taki some refills of some of her potion ingredients(at least the ones you can find at the stores); Nikora- Some Cd's of the artist she was always talking about; Seira- a clothes gift card; Coco- French vanilla scented body set; Rina- a book gift card; Noel- Branded Sunglasses and for Caren two hats. Plus as an extra gift he found name bracelets in each of the princesses pearl colors. They store didn't have Coco, Hanon or Lucia's names so he just got some with the first letter of their names.

After eating Hippo headed for the stores again he soon found a beauty store where he found a makeup set for Hanon. Hippo started to look around for the final gift. He then saw a bead jewelry kit for Lucia. Finally he found all the gifts for everyone. Hippo was about to walk out of the store when he saw something in the corner of his eye. He quickly turned and walked over to the container shelf. Before him was a silver metal heart shaped box with little golden vines clinging to the sides. The vines met at the top going into a metal red rose. Next to it was a necklace key to open the box. The key was silver and its end was the shape of a heart. Hippo put down his bags full of gifts and picked up the box. He took the key and opened the box. When he opened it a sweet and gentle melody poured out. The melody was so beautiful, it nearly brought tears to his eyes.

As the song continued the thought of Yuri came him. He imagined Yuri seated at a grand piano playing the song while swaying with the melody with a gentle smile on her face. He knew for sure that he was going to buy the jewelry box no questions asked, if he waited someone would for sure buy it before next time he would come back to the mall. He noticed that there was a ring cushion beside the open space to hold other jewelry. 'It does seem to be too empty…' Hippo picked up the box and looked around to find a ring. There on the ring shelf were many jewel, animal and flower rings. Hippo tried to remember what Yuri's name meant ( he had looked it up once when he had free time). Oh that's right her name means "lily"! Hippo almost shouting to himself earning a few confused stares from the other customers. Hippo looked through the flower rings and found a golden water lily ring. He purchased the items and headed home.

**Back to the Princesses**:

The girls finally made it to the palace in Lucia's country after four hours of nonstop swimming. "Phew, we finally made it, now time to find Nikora and Seira," Rina said in a hurry. As they were about to enter, nearby mermaids took notice to the multi-colored fin group. When the other mermaids figured out who they were, they started to scream and surround the girls. " Welcome home Princess Lucia! We thank you all for sacrificing so much to protect and save our world. It is an honor to see or even be in the presence of all the princesses!" the other mermaids said together.

'Wow did they plan this or something, they said all of that in perfect unison' Hanon thought to herself. 'I totally forgot, as princesses we are practically celebrities down here' thought Rina.

"No, we should be thanking you, we are only doing our jobs as princesses, you have stayed strong and supported us. To see your lives in peace is the greatest reward we can receive." Caren announced. The girls then smiled their genuine smiles in thanks. The other mermaids blushed, some even fainted at the sight of the incredibly bright smiles.

"What is with all the ruckus out here?" yelled a voice behind the crowd. The crowd separated and revealed Taki. "Hi Taki !" Lucia called out. "What are all of you doing out here?" asked Taki. Hanon spoke up. "We stopped by on our way to Coco's kingdom. Coco had received a message saying that she was needed there, and we thought that this could be a good opportunity to see more of the seas. We were thinking about bringing Seira with us to also see more and maybe go to see her country too." "Hmm... alright follow me. Seirais with Nikora. The girls waved goodbye to the other mermaids and followed Taki inside. "When did you become such a good liar? You even added extra information and made it more convincing." Noel whispered in amazement in the back to Hanon.

They made their way up the palace and stopped in front of a door. Taki knocked on the door. A few moments later a small orange color haired mermaid answered the door. " Yes?" When she realized who they were, she squealed and swam into Lucia's arms. "I've missed you all". "Who is it, Seira?" Another voice said from the room. Nikora was seated at a desk with papers all over it, as the girls entered.

"Lucia? Your highnesses? What are you all doing here? Where is Hippo?" questioned Nikora. Hanon told Nikora exactly what she told Taki and added that Hippo was at home, saying that he deserved a break from them. " Well I don't approve that Hippo is not doing his job watching you but I guess he does deserve a break anyways it's a little too late to send him now. Princess Coco you must be in a hurry, so I won't keep you any longer. Seira you can go if you want." said Nikora. "Thank you Nikora! I want to go! Bye Bye!" squeaked Seira. "I Guess that means mission two is complete," Coco whispered to Noel and Caren.

Wait right there Lucia!" Nikora called. The girls froze. "Yes?" Lucia replied turning slowly to face the older mermaid. "You need to eat before you leave it's a long trip. Oh and remember you need to be back home before Christmas, Alight?" Nikora said sternly. "Of course, I'll see you then. Bye!" replied Lucia. When Lucia closed the door behind her, everyone sighed in relief. Seira looked confused at them. Why are you all sighing?" "We'll tell you on the way, when we're not in the palace." Caren said to her.

When they were finally out of the palace, each princess had a bag full of food. "Geez, these are going to slow us down." complained Hanon. "Well, it would have been rude to refuse the food." ( When they went and got food, the vendors had insisted on giving a lot of food to them and didn't charge them.) Noel pointed out. "They gave us so much these are going to last us for the rest of the trip." Lucia put in. "These will help us so now we don't have to worry about food." "Okay everyone please come here for a sec." Called Rina. "Okay so Seira did Coco tell you what is going on?" "Yep, you guys are so sweet for thinking this up!" Rina took out the pearl tracker. This model is one of the recently made ones. This one can track a pearl anywhere in the world but it needs specific information to find that pearl. "Hey, we can use my pearl and it can track down the next closest pearl to mine which should be Sara's." insisted Seira. After doing that, a dot appeared near the Indian and South Pacific oceans border, a little down south of the North Pacific border. "It looks like we will get there hopefully before dark, if we don't stop. We need to go now. I'll lead the way." said Rina. The girls then started their journey again.


	4. A Home Left Behind

**Author's Note**: First of all I do not own MMPPP! This story is based off the manga not the anime. I only read the manga and watched a few episodes of the anime. Also if you noticed that the information is not right, you are very well correct and I do know that the information isn't correct. For example: The girls said that they were tracking down Sara's pearl, in the series, Sara actually gave her pearl to Lucia to hold until the next Indian Ocean princess was reborn (which was Seira). The location information is not correct also. ( I do not know where the author had intended to have everything.) So yeah. Bye. Until next time.

* * *

The mermaid princesses had been traveling for hours. Lucia was exhausted. She looked at the others and saw it in them too. They kept Hippo's happiness in mind, motivating them to keep pressing forward.

They had passed many islands. They had started at Lucia's Palace located right outside the Philippine Sea and traveled past the Northern Mariana and Caroline Islands. A hour ago they passed the Philippines going through the Molucca Sea. According to the pearl tracker, Sara was located near the Indian and South Pacific oceans border a little down south of the North Pacific border. The equator is the border that separates the North and Pacific. The border for the Indian and Pacific was harder to determine but many within the kingdoms considered it to be the 120 degree longitude line. So supposedly, they were heading for the area around Sumba Island of the Greater Sunda Islands. Lucia was so grateful of the knowledge they had or they would be lost. Every mermaid princess had to know every piece of land within her ocean.

"We should be there in soon, maybe less than a hour!" Rina announced.

"Thank Goodness!" Hanon cried out. " My fins are aching with all this swimming."

"That's a sign that we may have to start working out, Hanon," said Rina. "No, no I'm good, I'm fine, you don't have to think about that, Rina," panicked Hanon. "Let's keep going, no time for talking, it's starting to get dark."

After for swimming on for who knows how long, Rina stopped. Lucia almost rammed into her by the unexpected stop. Rina started to look around confused. "What's wrong Rina?" asked Noel. "The tracker says we're here… but there is nothing here."

Lucia looked around, they were surrounded by a beautiful coral reef. It was the first time she took in her surroundings. It was breathtaking. There were fish and marine animals everywhere.

"I thought that Gaito was the ruler of the deep seas, we're just in my kingdom," Seira pointed out.

"Don't tell me we came ALL THE WAY HERE and it led us to the WRONG PLACE!" Hanon shouted out in frustration.

"Hold on, calm down Hanon, let's first look around," Caren said calmly.

They looked around and swam up a somewhat looking hill. Coco went ahead and stopped at the top. She started to point at what was in front of her and called back to everyone. The other's quickly swam up beside their friend and saw what she was looking at.

Before them was a giant trench. They were basically on a cliff looking down at a bottomless pit of darkness.

"Well, looks like we finally made it…" Rina stated.

"You mean we have to go down … there?" squeaked Seira.

"Well, isn't that Grand! That's… that's lovely, just wonderful !" Hanon exclaimed sarcastically. She started to pace back and forth in frustration. Lucia was shocked and continued to stare at what they had to enter. She then looked around at the others. Caren and Noel were holding each other, shivering in fright. Rina was completely still and looked on, looking as if to mentally prepare herself. Coco was trying to comfort Seira who was nearly tearing up, but listening to Coco's soothing voice she could tell she was a little worried too, but still tried to act brave for the younger mermaid.

Rina was the first to recover. She turned to the others. "Look everyone we finally made it, we are officially half way through with our plan. I understand that this maybe the hardest part but we can do this together. We have fought many battles, and I refuse to have to be stopped by this trench. I ,for one, am not going to turn around and go home and give up." Rina yelled out encouragingly. "Oh, heck no, I did not come all the way here, resulting to sore fins and finding out we're going back. NO WAY!" Hanon shouted out.

Snapping out of it, everyone nodded in agreement. "Okay, I'll lead the way, everyone grab a hold of someone's hand so no one gets lost." Rina advised. Rina started to swim toward the dark, but slowed down in hesitation, then after taking in a breath continued on.

No one talked, trying to concentrate on not backing out in fear. Soon they were completely engulfed by the dark. Rina did not have a clue on where she was going. She soon was worried that she might run into something.

"I can't see anything. Does anyone have anything as a source of light?" asked Rina.

"Oh wait I think I have a flashlight." Hanon again replied sarcastically. Rina sighed at the comment. "Fine. Hmm... well I guess we can transform and use some power to light our way through."

The girls transformed and sang a melody to bring out a little power and light their way. They kept swimming on until they came to the mouth of a cave. "Man, do we have to enter that too? We don't even know what's in there." Questioned Caren.

"Well whatever is in there I bet we could handle it," Lucia said confidently.

Before they could even move forward. Two big glowing eyes were staring right at them from inside the cave. The princesses froze and stared back. They prepared for whatever it was. A giant deep sea fish crept out. It's eyes looked at each one of them making them shiver in response. 'The fish seems to look familiar…' Lucia thought to herself. Lucia then realized what it was. "Wait everyone that's the-" but before she could finish a deadly melody seeped through from the cave. Everyone covered their ears from the horrible sound. Soon the temperature dropped and they started to shiver.

"W-why does it s-s-s-seem so c-c-cold?" questioned Hanon through chattering teeth.

"I-It was.. already c-c-cold when w-w-we got here. Ha-ha-haven't you noticed where we are!" replied Rina.

" I-I know that! It s-s-seems t-to be g-g-getting c-c-colder," Hanon responded.

Soon the water around them started to move slowly around them. Coco couldn't take it anymore, she uncovered her ears and began to sing. Everyone followed in and began singing as well. The music, the cold and the water stopped and were replaced by groans of pain coming from inside the cave.

Four figures walked out into the light that the princesses were producing. Everyone soon recognized the ones who called themselves the Dark Lovers. Lucia told everyone to stop. When they stopped the four women fell to the ground with agony. The princesses slowly started to move toward the pained girls lying on the sea floor. Suddenly Maria sent a ice shard hurdling toward Lucia. Noel quickly deflected it with a quick but sweet singing note.

"Why are you attacking us?" asked Lucia.

"No you were going to attack us!" yelled Izuru.

" NO WE WEREN"T!" Hanon yelled back.

" Yeah you were. Then why are you all in those get-ups?" asked Yuri.

" Oh sorry we couldn't see so we transformed to make our way here," Lucia stated.

" Well, why are you mermaid brats even here? If you are here to harm our sleeping Master Gackto, don't even think about it. We're prepared to fight with our lives to protect our love." Maria said.

"That's even low for you guys, to attack someone who can't fight back," Eriru imputed.

"We're not here to attack you at all! We're actually here for Yuri," explained Rina.

"HUH?" Maria, Izuru and Eriru cried out in confusion and quickly turned their heads towards their youngest member.

"ME? Why me? I haven't done anything wrong… well anything, to any of you since that day at Gackto's castle. I didn't do anything wrong on Valentine's Day either." Yuri said worriedly.

"We came because of Hippo," said Lucia.

"HIPPO? IS HE OKAY? DID ANYTHING HAPPEN TO HIM? I WOULDN"T BE ABLE TO BARE IT SOMETHING HAPPENED TO HIM!" Yuri cried out, panicking.

Everyone was impressed by her response. 'She must really love him' thought Caren. She started to feel bad for what she had said at the bath house.

"No, no calm down Yuri. Hippo is completely fine. We're here to bring you back with us so that you and Hippo can finally be together." Lucia reassured her.

"Oh, it's okay then… wait why isn't he here with you?" Yuri asked blushing just thinking about him.

" Well as everyone knows, Christmas is coming up, and we wanted to surprise and make Hippo happy. Besides he doesn't have enough power to come and get you." Hanon replied this time.

"How do you even know that he still loves me?" Yuri questioned.

"Trust us we know he still loves you. Ever since Valentines day all he has been doing is been depressed." Seira imputed.

"Wait who are you?" asked Maria, Izuru and Eriru. "Yeah who are you? I saw you at the beach cabin that night but didn't know who you were." Yuri asked.

"Oh, my name is Seira and I am the new Indian Ocean princess. Nice to meet you," Seira said introducing herself.

"Huh. So you're the replacement of our rival." Maria observed.

At that moment two ghostly figures ,hand in hand, walked out of the cave. Coco was the first one to notice them. She soon got excited and swam toward them. "SARA!" she cried out.

When Coco tried to hug her, she past right through her. "Sorry, Coco but since I'm asleep this is the only way I can communicate with you." Sara said turning to face her friend, bringing the other person with her.

Maria, Izuru and Eriru started to become upset seeing Sara holding Gackto's hand. They quickly got up and patted the dirt off themselves. Yuri slowly did the same, still a little shocked at what was happening to her.

The princesses soon crowded around the former princess trying to greet her.

"We heard why you all came here," said Gackto. He turned to Yuri. "Do you want to go?"

"Yes, but what about you and everyone else? Yuri responded.

"Yuri, do we look weak to you? We can protect Master Gackto. Besides an opportunity like this is unlikely to happen again." Izuru trying to convince her.

"You should go, we're happy for you. You are lucky to find love." Maria said hugging Yuri.

"You should go to your love, Yuri," Eriru said twirling excitedly.

"Thank you guys" Yuri said hugging Maria back.

"Well all of you can't leave now it's already nighttime. Rest first and you can leave in the morning. That means we all can catch up." Sara said with a smile.

Seira and Coco were talking Sara's ear off. Hanon went to sleep. The dark lovers talked with the others as they ate the food from their bags.

Later that night when everyone was asleep, Yuri swam past the sleeping people quietly. She swam up until she was outside the trench. She surfaced on top of the water and swam up to a rock jolting out of the water. She looked up at the stars and the almost full moon.

'Are you looking at the sky too… Hippo? I'll be there soon. Back into your arms.'

**Back at the bath house:**

After he got home from the mall, Hippo had wrapped all of his gifts for everyone. When he came to the jewelry box he left it unwrapped. He continuously had opened it to listen to the melody. 'Why did I even buy this?' He wondered to himself. Well I can save it until I see her again. Till whenever that was. It had been 311 days since he had last seen her. Yeah, he had to admit that it was kind of sad that he had been counting the days, but he couldn't help it. He thought about her everyday. He didn't have a picture of her , but he still had the music box to see her.

He ate and got ready for bed. Instead of going to sleep right away, he went on top of the roof to look at the night sky.

He wondered what the stars would look like without the city lights. He sighed as he took in the peace and quiet he had longed for as he started to doze off to sleep.

**At dawn at the top of the trench**:

The princesses were prepared for their departure and everyone was saying their goodbyes. Yuri had all her processions in a bag which were: a few hair accessories, her bathing suit (the one she was wearing when she met Hippo), the shoes that Hippo got her, and a brush. She was wearing her only dress, a bit embarrassed that she didn't really have anything else. Coco wanted to hug her best friend so badly but knew she couldn't.

"Master Gackto, how am I going to make it on land? As soon as I leave where your body is I will turn into a fish." Yuri said worried.

"Well I already put a huge charm on you. Meaning that you will stay in your human form for a while, actually it is to end midnight on Christmas to be exact." answered Gackto.

"By then I will have everything to make your transformation permanent." Lucia added.

"Hehehe, it sounds like that one story, Cinderella, I believe," giggled Seira.

" Okay everyone we need to leave, so wrap it up. It's dangerous to swim at night so we must get there before then." announced Rina.

"Okay, Yuri it's time for you to go," Maria looked down at the smaller girl.

Yuri looked down at the ground and slightly nodded. "Yuri…?" Eriru said concerned.

Yuri started to shake. She suddenly ran and hugged Izuru tightly. Muffled sounds were then heard from Yuri sobbing into Izuru's dress. "Yuri what's wrong don't you want to go?" asked Maria. Yuri looked up with tears streaming down her small face.

" I want to go… but I'm afraid I won't ever see you again." Cried Yuri. "You are the one and only family I have ever had. I never imagined my life without you all. I never had any other family, no relatives, no nothing. I don't even remember the time before I met you all. I was there since Gackto was small too…"

Yuri felt something hit her face. When she looked back up she saw that Maria, Izuru and Eriru were tearing up. Maria and Eriru joined in on the hug, and couldn't hold back their tears anymore. Yuri could feel the hug become tighter, making her feel secure.

She thought of how Maria was protective and strong like an older sister, Izuru was seen as the motherly figure for her and Eriru was the fun loving one, always cheering her up.

She was with Gackto all her life, trying to show love toward the abandoned prince, causing her to do all those awful things to others for him. Now they were being taken from her.

"Don't worry, Yuri, we'll be there for you. If Hippo dares to break your heart or hurt you, he will have to talk to us. We are still a family no matter how far away you are." Izuru said trying to keep her voice from trembling.

Maria and Eriru pulled away as Izuru used her dress to wipe Yuri's tears away.

"You have to be a big girl now, okay?" Izuru said straightening Yuri up.

Yuri nodded and forced a smile, trying to make herself feel better.

"I will, don't worry about me, I'll see you again someday," Yuri replied.

She started to swim over toward the princesses when she stopped in front of Gackto and Sara.

"I'm sorry I didn't really get a chance to know you Ms. Sara and how I continuously failed you Master Gackto." Yuri apologized. She then began to start swimming when Gackto stopped her.

" Yuri I am very grateful for you, you never left my side or betrayed me. I will miss you Yuri, and remember you never truly failed me. I should apologize for causing so much pain toward you when you tried your hardest. Thank You." He then bowed in respect to her. "You greatly deserve this."

Yuri smiled her thanks and stood beside the mermaids. They turned around and waved bye. The others waved bye in response. Yuri looked back as they swam away until they were out of sight.

She looked forward and followed the girls to her new home.


	5. So close, yet So far

Yay! It's finally here! I so apologize for how long it took to continue this story. To tell you the truth I wasn't going to continue. My lazy side got the best of me plus I had school. Geez, high school.. not looking forward to college then again I am. I was going to just give up on this story thinking it wasn't good enough. After all this time I realize that story writing isn't for me. Then one day, I checked my mail which is REALLY RARE and found out someone had reviewed this horrible excuse of a story. So then I was like, "Aww after all this time someone really does care for my work." Then I was like," Oh okay I'll finish the story." So then I decided that hey since it's a Christmas story I'll make the 5th chapter come out a week before Christmas and let the 6th chapter come out on Christmas Eve, but then time went by and then all of a sudden BAM! Christmas passed. NO! So now begging for forgiveness I have released the 5th chapter. Yeah I can hear the booing already. " Hey DanaKai, Why is the chapter coming out now? This isn't a New Years story!" Yeah Yeah I know. Anyways for the ones who actually read this story( or even this author's note section) THANK YOU. I applaud you for ,I guess, wasting your precious time for reading this. Enough with the depressing talk let's get to the story! Enjoy... yeah right.

Oh for the ones who actually like this story let's all thank **cakedecorator** for encouraging me to try and finish this story! YAY!

* * *

Lucia crawled onto the beach. She turned over and lied down on the sand in exhaustion. Everyone else was lying on the sand all around her.

They had finally made it back to their hometown in Japan. Again, they had swam nonstop on the way back. They had been so determined to make it back before dark, that they even ate while swimming, trying their best not to slow down.

Yuri sat up and looked around. She recognized the beach they were on. This place held many happy, depressing and life changing memories for her. It was where she and the rest of the Dark Lovers had attacked the mermaid princesses countless times. Most importantly where she met … Hippo for the first time. Yuri blushed just thinking about him.

She looked around taking in her surroundings. She could feel the cool ocean breeze kiss her cheeks gently and help slowly dry her soaking wet hair. The sound of the crashing waves, seagulls flying above and the murmur of distant cars and people within the town behind her. She smelled the sweetness of the food from the nearby shacks and the saltiness of the sea spray carried by the wind to her. She watched the sun slowly sink into the ocean as it dyed the clouds in different shades of yellow, orange, red, pink, purple and finally blue.

"Welcome home, Yuri," Lucia said with a gentle smile as she was laying down beside her.

Home. What a wonderful word. At last, an actual place that she could belong to. " I'm home…" she whispered in reply, mainly to herself.

As the princesses heard this they all looked at each other, and smiled, happy that they now had a new member of their family and that their plan was going well.

Rina began to rise slowly. When she got to her feet, she stretched and looked at everyone around her. "Alright girls, we may have gotten this far but we are not quite finished yet. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. That means we have to make up everything that we were suppose to do when we were gone, but seeing you guys ,I believe, we are done for today. Good Job everybody."

Everyone answered with a tired Yay or whoo.

"I was wondering, who lives the closest around here besides Lucia?" Coco asked, " Since we can't go there and I'm too tired to go to my place (which is on the other side of the town)."

"I live near downtown," Rina answered. "Me and Seira live with Lucia," Hanon put in.

Noel looked at Caren who nodded. "We live a couple blocks away, if you all want you are welcomed to come over and stay the night, although I think all of us would be too tired to really do anything but sleep."

Everyone thanked Noel and Caren and slowly made their way to their apartment.

The sun peeked through the curtains, pouring light onto Yuri's face the next morning. She slowly opened her eyes to adjust to the brightness. "Ah, what a beautiful morning," she yawned.

It then came to her that she was completely dry. In panic she quickly sat up and looked around finding herself in a small room. She felt movement beside her and looked down to find the pink mermaid princess beside her. Her heart stopped. "Oh crap I'm so dead… wait a minute." Yuri looked all around her and found the green princess on her other side and all the other princesses laying on futons all around her. She froze in fright. "Did I get captured? I'll never escape. Oh no, I'm going to be in so much trouble with Master Gackto."

Yuri looked around and tried to calm down. She then noticed purple eyes staring straight at her. Apparently the purple mermaid had been watching her the whole time. (Caren decided to wake up early to watch if Yuri was going to try something. Obviously she doesn't quite trust her yet).

"Please don't hurt me. I haven't done anything bad recently to anyone. Well, maybe played a few pranks on Eriru but they were harmless! Just please don't hurt me…" Yuri said begging quietly enough not to awaken the princesses surrounding her. Caren cut her off. " No one's going to hurt you. Calm down. Don't you remember we brought you back with us, so you can be with Hippo?"

The memory of the previous day finally came to her. " Oh that's right ,heh heh heh…" she giggled in relief. Her face then turned red from hearing her loved one's name.

Caren smiled as Yuri became flustered from Hippo's name. _She can't be that bad. She must go pretty far for the ones she loves. I think she wouldn't have done all those bad things if it weren't for Gackto_. Caren's train of thought was interrupted by a low rumbling growl.

"Hmmm looks like someone is hungry," Caren observed. "Come with me I'll make some breakfast."

Breakfast was made and on the table. Everyone else was woken up and seated. Rina then decided to say an announcement.

" Good morning everyone, I hope you guys slept long enough to gain your energy back. Cause we still have a lot to do today. Since I'm guessing, or at least hoping you guys already bought your Christmas gifts then I can assign everybody what to buy for the party… Just in case though,, who hasn't bought their gifts yet?"

Two hands slowly rose up.

"Of coarse you two would be the ones. That's why I'm not surprised," Rina said scolding Hanon and Lucia, who nervously smiled in return.

"Okay, after breakfast we're all going to head to the mall to get everything and where our procrastinators can buy their gifts," Rina sighed. " Caren and Noel you two are taking Yuri with you and are in charge of getting the food. I have a list of all the food we need." She said as she handed the list to Noel. "We don't have to get decorations since Hippo already decorated every inch of the house plus the bath house."

Yuri once again blushed at the sound of Hippo's name.

" Now that I think about it I'm surprised Hippo hasn't tried to get a hold of you Lucia since you didn't call him last night." Right when Rina finished her sentence a ring tone began to play from where Lucia was sitting. " Oh look at that what nice timing you have Rina, you should be a psychic," Lucia said in awe as she looked at the caller ID.

**Back at the Bathhouse**:

Hippo was beginning to worry. Although he heard, you should give teenagers their space, he still needed to do his job. He grabbed the phone and called Lucia.

"Hello?" Lucia answered on the other end.

"Lucia where are you? Is Hanon with you?"

"We're at Caren and Noel's place and yes Hanon is with me."

"Oh okay…" Hippo then heard someone talking in the background.

"Yes It's really him." Lucia said to the person. He then heard a scream, shushing then silence.

"Uh Lucia what is going on over there?" Hippo asked worryingly.

"Oh nothing, I'll be home later tonight, okay? Alright bye! Lucia replied quickly then hanging up.

"Okay… I guess I have nothing to worry about… hopefully Rina is with them…" Hippo said. To keep himself from worrying, he decided to decorate the outside of the house.

**Back at the apartment**:

Hanon removed her hands from covering Yuri's mouth, once Lucia had hung up. All the princesses sighed in relief. "That was a close one," Seira said.

"Is it just me or has everything we've been through seem a bit, I don't know, orderly? I mean, like it seems that everything has been going too well. Also did you noticed that we could see Yuri's tears even when we were under water when we were about to leave. This world is still a mystery to me." Coco said confused.

"Hey, don't say that. Now you probably have jinxed us. Quick, go knock on the table." Noel said playfully. "Although, I don't understand why you have to knock on wood. It just doesn't seem logical. "

"Alright I need someone to go to the bath house to watch Hippo and make sure he doesn't get suspicious. Hmm… Coco I think you will be good for this job. Do you mind doing it?"

"Nope, it shouldn't be too hard," Coco responded after knocking on the table.

"Okay thank you. I'll be calling you later to ask you to come to the mall okay?" Rina continued. " Seira and I, will go find entertainment things and party favors. So I guess that's everything that needs to be said. Is everybody good?

"Yep!" Everyone responded. "Good. Can I eat now?" Hanon asked looking hungrily at her food. "Yeah, Yeah go ahead and eat." Rina answered.

About an hour later Yuri found herself standing in front of the Grocery store with the purple and blue princesses. She watched as people went in and came out with bags of food. Yuri turned to face Caren and Noel. " What is this place? It seems so magical. People go in and then come out bags full of food!" Yuri exclaimed with wonder.

"Hmmm, you've never seen a grocery store before, have you?" Caren said looking down at the smaller girl.

Yuri shook her head in reply.

"Well, this is where humans get there food." Said Noel. "Let's go in. We'll show you how it works."

When they walked in, Yuri was speechless with how much food there was.

"First people come in, get a basket or a cart, go through the store and get whatever food they are planning to buy. Then they go there and pay for everything they want." Noel said as she pointed towards the cashiers. " But it isn't like this everywhere," Caren said trying to put in a little more information. " In some other places in the world, people can grow or raise their own food and maybe go to markets, which is kind of like this but it's outdoors, and sell some of their food for money or trade it for something else. Also all this food came from people who raised and grew it or maybe from some factories."

"Wow, humans have it easy. When I was in my fish form I had to look for my own food while I was in danger of getting eaten by bigger fish or predators." Yuri said looking at the ground remembering all those times.

"Now you don't have to worry anymore because now you don't have to go through that again." Noel reassuring her.

"Now it's about time we get started. We don't have much time, we still have to go to the mall after this." Caren said.

After getting everything off the list from Rina, they began making their way to the cashiers. "Hmmm I'm in the mood for ice cream. Since we're still in here let's get some." Caren said to Noel.

Caren got chocolate and Noel got vanilla. Caren turned towards Yuri. " What flavor are going to get, Yuri?" "Uh? I can get some? But I don't know how I will be able to pay you back … You already have to pay for all of the food…" Yuri said in surprise.

"Oh don't worry about it, money isn't an issue," Caren replied. "Okay, if it's alright with you, I'll get strawberry." Yuri said still unsure but really excited.

After they bought all the food, dropped off the food at their apartment, Caren, Noel and Yuri made their way to the mall while eating their ice cream out of the ice cream containers.

"I feel like a big sister when taking care of Yuri. I helped teach her something new and I bought her something. This is a great feeling. Is this how you feel when you're with me?" Caren asked Noel in a low voice with Yuri a few steps ahead of them, too into her ice cream to hear them.

"Yep, It's really fun, too. I just wish I could have been with you when you were growing up and really get that feeling." Noel said a little depressed, while looking at her melting ice cream and shoving a spoonful into her mouth.

"Hey… Noel, you are the best sister I could ever have," Caren said trying to comfort her. "It wasn't anybody's fault that we were apart. Anyways it doesn't matter now, because right now you're with me and no one is going to keep us apart any longer."

Noel looked up from her ice cream and gave a cheerful smile to her younger sister. "Yeah. Let's finish this plan so that Yuri and Hippo can no longer be apart either."

Coco came walking down the street to find that half of the outside of the bathhouse was decorated. She then saw a blonde boy on a ladder putting up a rope of lights along the edges of the roof.

"Hey Hippo! Long time no see! Whatcha doing? Coco yelled.

Hippo nearly fell off the ladder from the sudden yell. He carefully turned around. "Oh hey Coco! I'm just decorating the bathhouse!" Hippo called back.

Coco walked up beside the ladder, trying avoid stepping on decorations placed all over the ground. Coco looked up at Hippo. "Hmmm, Do you mind if I help?" asked Coco. "No, I don't mind. That would actually be very helpful." Hippo answered cheerfully.

After about an hour the whole house was completely decorated. "Looks like we're done here." Coco said feeling accomplished. "Almost. I still have two more things to put up." Hippo said still sitting at the top of the ladder also feeling proud of his work.

Hippo looked down at his hands and found an angel in one hand and a mistletoe light decoration in the other. "Look another mistletoe…" he whispered with a blank face.

"Huh? What did you say?" Coco asked looking up at Hippo from the ground beside the ladder.

Hippo stuck out his hand with the mistletoe decoration in it and dropped it, with no emotion on his face. Coco who was confused at what was going on, luckily was paying attention and quickly caught the decoration before it hit the ground. She checked to see if any damage came to it and sighed in relief.

"Hippo! Why did you do that! That was very…dangerous." Coco stopped as she looked up at Hippo, who now had the angel in both hands, looking at it blankly. "Hippo? Hippo what's wrong? Hippo…?"

Hippo stared at the angel in his hands. _My Angel. My sweet Angel. Yuri. Oh Yuri. Where can you possibly be?_

Coco then saw tears swelling up on the now sad face. "Oh Hippo…"

Hippo suddenly looked down at Coco. "I can't do it anymore! I don't want to find her! I NEED to find her! I have been trying to figure out a way to find her again, but I could never figure out how! I'm going to find her now! Even if it takes me a hundred years to do, so be it!" Hippo screamed out. At that, he placed the angel on the roof and quickly began to climb down the ladder.

_Oh Crap!_ "Wait Hippo!" Coco cried out, as Hippo walked by her towards the beach. Coco ran after Hippo and grabbed his arm, trying to stop him. Hippo kept going, forcing his way towards the water and nearly dragging Coco with him. "You can't stop me! I can't wait any longer!" Hippo yelled.

"Hippo, you can't go you don't even have a plan! You can't leave. What about everybody else!" Coco cried out with desperation in her voice. " You still have your duty as the protector of the mermaid princesses!"

When hearing this Hippo stopped pulling and sunk to his knees into the sand. "My Duty."

Coco walked in front of him and also got onto her knees, so that they would be face to face. "If you were so desperate, how come you didn't tell any one? You know we can help you. "

Hippo looked down at the sand. "We're family, we help each other out." Coco continued. *Sigh* The girls were planning to have that Christmas party. They are working pretty hard on it, so don't go running off and ruining to party, okay?

Hippo was still looking down. Coco grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. "Hey, everything is going to be okay. Me and you can tell everyone else what you want to do and we'll all look for her, together. Just promise me now that you will be at the party tomorrow."

Hippo gave no indication that he even heard her. "Hey, you promise?" He slowly nodded his head. Coco removed one of her hands from the side of his face and stuck out her pinky. Hippo stared at her hand for a moment, then also stuck out his pinky and hooked his with her pinky. "I promise." He said in a soft voice.

By hearing his voice Coco was not quite convinced but did not want to push it, so she left it at that.

"Come on let's get inside, it's starting to get cold out here." Coco and Hippo then made their way back to the bathhouse.

Noel, Caren and Yuri finally made it to the Mall and now were making their way to a store Rina had told them to meet everyone at. Caren looked at the title of the store when they reached it_, Dazzling Elegance_. 'What the, this store was known for beautiful but very expensive dresses and suits. What is Rina planning now?'

As they were about to walk in Lucia and Hanon came walking out to with bags full of gifts. "Hey guys Rina and Seira are waiting inside. We get to buy dresses! This is starting to become really exciting! Supposedly Rina and Seira are going pretty far with this party!" Lucia exclaimed. "Well, we have to go, we're going by the house to start getting ready for tomorrow. There just isn't enough time more. Bye!" Hanon said quickly already moving towards the direction of the exit out of the mall.

They walked in and found Rina putting down a pink gown on top of orange, green and blue gowns and Seira marking stuff on a piece of paper. Seira looked up and them walking their direction. "Hey guys! Did you get all the food?" Seira asked when they got closer. "Yeah and we took it back to our place. So what are we doing here? This doesn't seem like the place you would get a dress for a normal Christmas party." Caren asked.

Rina turned to them. Don't worry about how the party is going to go, Seira and I have everything down. Now all we have left to do today is get everyone to buy a dress. Now go ahead and look around.

As they were browsing through dresses Yuuri turned to Noel who was right beside her. " Why is the Green princess doing everything instead of your pink friend?" "Oh Rina? Hmm… I don't know. I didn't notice until now. Maybe she saw it as something she thought would be interesting to be apart of. Supposedly since Hanon and Lucia came up with the idea and told Rina, Rina had the most ideas and just kind of took over."

"Okay… Oh, I have another question. How are you all able to afford all of this? I know your princesses and stuff but these humans don't know your royalty." " Hehe… your very curious. Well, we use pearls and exchange them for human currency. Down there you can find pearls everywhere. So this is why we are telling you not to worry about getting anything because money isn't an issue. Be aware though when you live with Lucia and her "sister" you have to work for money. Lucia's older "sister", Nikora, doesn't like to use pearls for money and rather work for it. I think she likes the thrill of having a place to take care of and earn money from."

As Caren, Yuri and Noel continued searching for dresses, Coco came rushing into the store. She looked around wildly and spotted Rina and Seira and quickly went up to them. " We have a problem. Hippo finally broke down and tried to make his way into the ocean to look for Yuri himself. I got him to stop for now, but I don't know how long it's going to last." Coco said out of breath. " Crud, I'll tell Lucia and Hanon to keep an eye on him, hopefully he doesn't try any thing." Rina replied as she quickly took out her cell phone.

Hippo sat at his desk. He stopped writing on a piece of paper before him. He read it.

_Dear Everyone, It has finally come to me that I can not wait any longer. I have tried my best to keep staying calm and patient but I cannot stand it. By the time you read this I will be already gone far away to start looking for Yuri. Thank You. Until we see each other again. Good Bye._

_Sincerely, Hippo_

Hippo turned toward his window and looked out to the ocean and the crashing waves upon the shore. Don't worry Yuri, I'll be with you soon as long as it takes.


End file.
